Is it me or is the new workflow to lock/unlock motors in Easel a pain? We’ve been working with locked motors between carves for several years with Easel and now, when changing bits and if you forget to lock your motors, your zero is now off.

I’m all for upgrades but this should be an option as to whether we want to work with it the way it was or allow unlocking.

What does everyone else think?

One more thing: I sure hate the changes just appearing without advance notice; any of you?

I’ve been doing it for ever without rehoming. I have a stop screw set at my x and y zero points already. If I’m at the screws, I’m homed. It’s visual, works great and never misses when you have to take a board off for painting, etc. Then putting back on, it lines up perfectly every time without having the motors unlocked.

OK, what am I missing. I have NEVER unlocked or locked the spindle. If I remember on the initial setup two years ago I set it to “locked” and haven’t touched it since. I have never had it move during a bit change and I never re-zero after a bit change. Am I doing it wrong?? Seems to have worked just fine for a bunch of carves.

To OP:
Dip switch #4 to OFF on all three axes (open Xcontroller to locate the blue DP switch block) and make sure $1=255 and motors are “locked” at all times. Locked = energized, resisting external motion.

Hi @katslod! Nothing in Easel has changed related to locking and unlocking. If you’re still having troubles, please reach out to our Customer Success so they can look into it. You can email or call them here.

Hi @katslod - We’re not disagreeing with you that you’re having a new experience, but we haven’t made changes to Easel in this area. If you contact our Customer Success team, someone should be able to help you figure out what’s happening!